Where to look for inspiration?

This is one of those subjects that never get taught, it’s a personal thing and everyone is different. It’s not really something designers talk about either. Some may hint during the presentation with mood boards (our method of choice), but most keep it ‘under wraps’.

So where do designers get inspiration from? It’s a question that pops up from time to time. And actually not an easy one to answer, not without sounding a tad evasive. Because basically design inspiration can come from almost anywhere.

‘Anywhere’, is also slightly all encompassing and a touch vague. Never the less, it can come from almost anywhere; knowledge you gain from the Internet today or from something you were told when you were a child. It can come from a famous painting or a holiday snap, from a Liberty pattern print to a child’s finger painting. Inspiration can come from the most obvious or the most obscure of places.

recognising sources of inspiration is the easy part. Knowing what to do with it and how to use it is quite another.

You can of course give inspiration a ‘helping hand’. Look for it, surround yourself with books, follow a blog or two. Watch documentaries and feed off any number of 140 character gurus on Twitter.

But the truth is, recognising sources of inspiration is the easy part. Knowing what to do with it and how to use it is quite another. This is where experience (and a chunk or creativity) comes in. It’s also where a complete understanding of your client and their needs are vital. It’s a little like connecting dots (but this dot to dot has had the numbers removed!). Taking the thoughts and pictures that you’ve gathered. Elements which have some link either visually or conceptually to the project. Then translating these sometimes random thoughts into something compelling is the challenge. Rearranging the dots and then joining them up in such a way that they resemble a possible solution to the brief.

That is the art in design.

So, the inspiration part is simple. There is no link to a fount of knowledge, it’s just life. It’s taking that kernel of an idea and morphing it into the gem of a design; that’s the skill.

Puur mixes years of experience with creative inspiration (and a small dose of ‘science’ -that’s for another time) to develop unique and ownable identity solutions. So if you need a tailored unique solution to your specific design challenge, give us a call today for a chat about how we can help.

Michael Rance lives in the centre of Colchester with his family. He is an award-winning designer (D&AD, LIAA, BDA etc) with over two decades of National and International experience working with household name clients such as BP and Diageo. He is the owner and design inspiration behind Puur in Colchester.